Joy, Fun, and a Day in the Sun

Today was the kiddos' school picnic to celebrate the end of the year.  First, I can't believe the school year is over--how has it been 9 months since we first dropped them off and worried for 2 1/2 hours, having worried all summer, that we would all be okay?  But that's another post.

When I was in the hospital on Monday night, I worried about just a few things:  what was wrong with me?  would I be able to teach painting at the kids' school on Tuesday?  and would I be ready for the picnic on Thursday?   Ruptured ovarian cyst.  Nope.  And yes, with a lot of help from a friend.

This post is about that last one.  I had volunteered to bring 2 dozen finger-food desserts and had decided to make mini-cupcakes decorated with variously-colored smiley faces.  Only, I was too doped up Tuesday night and too achy Wednesday night to do anything.  Mama Teacher to the rescue!!  She came over, not with dinner in hand as offered, but ready to bake and decorate cupcakes while also entertaining her son and my kiddos.  And she did it with aplomb!  Don't those cupcakes look great?!  (I decorated three of them, maybe, just to try my hand at it; hopefully, you can't tell which three!  I'm not sure I can; it might be those three blue ones in the middle.)  There were some big ones too, 4 of which she decorated for the teachers and three of which were decorated and eaten by our kids.  And everyone at the picnic loved them!  Kids grabbed them before taking fruit or sandwiches, carefully choosing their colors (along predictable gender lines, with kids settling for yellow when blue and pink were gone).  And the plate was emptied before anything else.   Well done, Mama Teacher!  And thanks so much!!

Of course, there was other food.  I inhaled cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches on white bread--oh, what a sweet, ooey treat.  Bud loved the strawberries and punch; Sis loved the watermelon and cantaloupe.  Mama had a little bit of all of it.  When we were all full, we sang some songs (on seeds popping up into flowers to the tune of "Pop! Goes the Weasel" and a song about opposites) and then all did the chicken dance (Sis apparently had refused to practice--she and Mama are two peas in a pod!  But they both gave it some effort when the finale was here).  We took pictures with our teachers and also as a family and continually remarked how much everyone had grown and how fast the year had gone.  Just a summer until they're 4 and only a year away from kindergarten!

We'll have time to make lots of cupcakes over the summer but I think these will still be my favorites, the ones that friendship made.